Olympics a boost for local gym

Ever since star pupil Aly Raisman came back from the Olympics seven weeks ago with a couple of gold medals, Brestyan’s American Gymnastics has been jammed with everyone from toddlers to transfers, the numbers doubling to nearly 700. Mihai Brestyan, Raisman’s coach, founded the program 12 years ago. Click through for more scenes from a busy day at the Burlington gym with reporting from the Globe’s John Powers.
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AP

Aly Raisman (left) listened to coach Mihai Brestyan during a practice session for the US Classic meet in May. Raisman may continue toward the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, or take a sabbatical of a year or more, or retire and go to college. “It is a little bit scary for me because I need to start all over again,” said the 59-year-old Brestyan. He reckons that he has three or four gymnasts poised to make the jump to the international level and another 15 young ones coming up behind them.
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Globe Staff Photo / Barry Chin

Talia Chiarelli, the daughter of Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli, is one of two elite gymnasts currently training with Brestyan in Burlington.
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Globe Staff Photo / Barry Chin

“The problem we have is to find very quick more coaches to keep the standard,” said Mihai Brestyan. “Because you expect the gym to grow but not to grow so fast. You need to have good instructors to make sure that everyone is doing their job.”
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When Mihai and Silvia Brestyan opened their first gym in Ashland in 2000, less than four years after emigrating from Israel, they had only 20 kids in the building. Five years later, Brestyan star Alicia Sacramone won a gold medal in the World Championships. She went on to win a silver medal in Beijing in 2008, and Raisman followed with her success in London. Now Brestyan has a pipeline of five-ringed hopefuls.
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Globe Staff Photo / Barry Chin

The Brestyans have 15 tutors now, supervising everything from the Mom and Me program to the elite level.
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Globe Staff Photo / Barry Chin

Since the Games ended, Brestyan has been getting calls from gymnasts’ parents from as far away as Oregon inquiring about relocating here.
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Globe Staff Photo / Barry Chin

“My advice [to relocating parents] is do not jump so fast, because you need to change your life,” Brestyan said. “Show me the kid first and then I’ll tell you if it’s worth it or not. The sacrifice is huge and I don’t want you to come back in two years and to blame me and say, ‘Look, you didn’t tell me that.’ I cannot promise you a gold medal. I cannot promise you anything.”
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Globe Staff Photo / Barry Chin

Brestyan has been coaching at the international level for more than three decades, since he and his wife Silvia worked with the Romanian team in the Nadia Comaneci days.
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Globe Staff Photo / Barry Chin

The odds of even making it to Olympics are daunting. Nearly 100,000 girls compete in gymnastics in America. There are five spots on the national team.
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Globe Staff Photo / Barry Chin

Brestyan’s has 200 girls competing on 11 teams and the best of them are world-class.
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Globe Staff Photo / Barry Chin

During the past dozen years, more than 30 Brestyan’s gymnasts have gone on to compete at colleges ranging from Brown to Auburn to Stanford.
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Globe Staff Photo / Barry Chin

The Brestyans don’t need to advertise and they say they don’t recruit. “We always tell the parents, think twice before you make a decision because maybe it will not be the best choice,” Brestyan said. “The program is difficult. You are princess in your gym and you will not be princess in my gym. We have a lot of other princesses here. You need to work hard like them.”
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